Ashdod 20 Sivan 5775
To all our grandchildren and great-grandchildren
It is 3:53 a.m., the cell phone rings to go down to the shelter. I just have to wake Grandma, and a few minutes later, we're on the stairs, descending four floors, with the rest of our neighbors, the healthy and the ill.
We settle into the shelter as best we can, a little cramped, and we wait. The alarms sound, and then the reports begin, reporting missile and debris impacts across the country, injured people, perhaps trapped people.
And this is what has been happening to us for three days and three nights now.
If I had to stop there, it would be very sad.
But I remember that I was born to parents who each experienced the terrible Holocaust in different ways, but in very painful and humiliating ones. And that in their time, more than a third of our people were executed, with endless suffering, by evil nations whose cruelty was sophisticated.
And now, we are safe, while once again, technologically advanced enemies fire missiles at us, each containing a ton of explosives. Not only that, but they plan to invent nuclear weapons capable of destroying our entire small country in an instant!
However, the great difference between my parents, of blessed memory, and myself is that our people now have the capacity to stand up to the many nations that are trying to destroy us.
Our righteous soldiers are bombarding our enemies' capital with great success and stunningly destroying their military capabilities.
And we have, in God's name, a wise and experienced government, waging this war with strength and heroism.
All that remains is for us to thank God, pray, multiply our good deeds, and progress in Torah study.
Today, our country lacks neither food nor clothing, and we can observe the entire Torah with joy.
That is why I wanted to share with you my most sincere feelings, the privilege of having arrived in this country in our generation, and the pride I feel in seeing all the goodness offered to us, in the wonderful conditions, both material and spiritual, that surround us on all sides.
Give thanks to God, for He is good, for His mercy is forever.
With much love from Saba